A little frivolous Friday fun. Take a quiz at Mystyle.com to determine your personal style. I turned out to be Classic. Apparently my dream is "to find a barely used Chanel jacket at Goodwill," but I'm afraid I wouldn't know a Chanel jacket if it reached out and poked me in the arm. One of my latest fashion purchases was a t-shirt with a waffle printed on it. Classic.
I mentioned the Lost Type Co-op a couple weeks ago as a source of retro-inspired display typefaces. The folks over there have just released a handful of new fonts you might like. (Type "0" into the price box for a free download).
I was delighted to see a beautiful tutorial using some of my Outside Oslo fabric at Sew Mama Sew today. The lovely Joy Kelley of How Joyful demonstrates how to sew a padded laptop bag. The more I studied the photos, the more I realized just how special this bag is: it can levitate. I want one! Learn how to make it here.
The Needle Shop, a lovely DIY sewing school and fabric store in Chicago, hired me to design a flyer they could post to advertise their sewing classes. Something budget-friendly and simple, but a step up from the raggedy "free puppies" notices tacked up at the grocery store. You know the type: people tear off phone numbers from the bottom and after a few have been taken, the notices start to look like they've been gnawed by rats. We can do better! Let's perforate those tear-off strips.
The pink design was selected and printed at Uprinting.com. Then, since The Needle Shop loves DIY projects, I proposed a couple easy ways to perforate the flyers—saving them the money a printer would charge to finish these. 
One option is to sew a line of stitches with an unthreaded sewing machine. The needle makes punctures in the paper that help it separate more easily.
Another option is a rotary perforating blade. These are similar to the standard blades in rotary cutters, but the edges are notched. They make a series of dashes in the paper.
I hunted around online to find a 45 mm perforating blade that fits rotary cutters used for trimming fabric. I have a Fiskars cutter and an Olfa cutter. I couldn't find anything made by either of those manufacturers, but the We R Memory Keepers blade (a mere $2.18!) works with standard 45 mm cutters.
To use it, just place a ruler along the line you want to perforate and roll the blade along it. Works like a charm. 
Here's the perforating blade compared to the sewing machine. (Click the photo to view larger.) The blade gives a much easier, cleaner tear, but the sewing machine is definitely better than nothing.
You could make your own coupons, tickets, invitations, and more. I'm fighting the urge to perforate everything in my house.
You may have seen Lisa Congdon's project A Collection a Day mentioned here and there around the internet. If you'd like to put one of Lisa's photos on your computer desktop, get three images right here at The Fox is Black. Suddenly I want to go to Athens or Cairo and place an item in a hat rack.
Here's a small round-up of goodies to make for your house. On your lunch hour, really, since a mid-century bench shouldn't take more than ten minutes to whip up. Ha. Have fun making!
DIY bunting tablecloth at The Sweetest Occasion
Abstract wall art by Oh Happy Day
Room dividing screen from Kootut Murut
Photo-dyed lace lampshade at Inkodye
Rollie Pollie beanbag chair by MADE at So You Think You're Crafty
Mid-century modern bench by Salvage Love
Today I'm sharing a project from Lisa Occhipinti, a painter, book artist, Etsy seller, instructor and author based in Venice, CA. Lisa loves rescuing discarded books and using them in her paintings and projects—including the sewing box project in her new how-to book, The Repurposed Library.
The Repurposed Library presents 33 items crafted from books: learn to make wreaths, vases, shelves, storage boxes, and more. If you get a kick out of watching people wield glue guns, check out the book's lovely trailer. 
To learn how to make a sewing supplies storage box from an old book (choose a sewing book for maximum awesomeness), download the PDF instructions. The file is 1.3 MB, so be patient if it takes a minute. Go make yourself a sandwich and come back. Then keep your eyes peeled for an orphaned book that needs a new lease on life.
Fashionable Fabrics is an online store offering designer novelty fabrics, sewing patterns, books, and notions. Unsatisfied with the selection in large retail chains, the shop's owners founded the site in 2004 to help crafters and sewists get their hands on unique prints from their favorite designers.
Win a gift certificate
Fashionable Fabrics is giving away a $50 gift certificate to two lucky How About Orange readers, good towards anything in the store! International readers are welcome to participate. To enter, leave a comment on this post mentioning something you'd spend the money on or a fun project you have in mind. Make sure you include a link, email address, or other way of contacting you.
The giveaway closes Friday, August 5th at midnight CT. Two winners will be randomly drawn, announced on Fashionable Fabrics' Facebook page on Monday the 8th, and notified. Good luck!
Giveaway is now closed. The winners were Jane and Khala—congratulations!
If you're a designer in need of digital textures, check out the free canvas textures at Fuzzimo and some paper textures from Dioma. CG Textures also offers plain, decorative and wallpaper backgrounds in their "Paper" section. (Setting up a free account is needed to download high resolution versions there, but it's well worth it).
To get Deming, the font I used in the graphic above, click here.
I use background textures on brochures, websites, headers, and more. If you have portfolio pieces or stationery designs you want to show off, consider layering the digital image on top of a fabric or paper background in Photoshop. Add a drop shadow, and you've got a lovely, fake "photo" of your piece. For inspiration, see how Minted.com presents their stationery products.
In my neck of the woods, babies keep popping out all over the place. Now I'll be ready to pounce on them with a "welcome baby" card. Find boy and girl versions of Olliegraphic's free printable at Oh My! Handmade Goodness.
Amy Moss of Eat Drink Chic continues to churn out beautifully styled stationery to print yourself. Get her DIY picnic invitation set right here.
Print your own recipe cards featuring hand-drawn owls by Suz Sanchez, free from My Owl Barn. Download the PDF here. Update: now there's a fillable version you can type out and print!
Thanks to the ever-generous citizens of the internet, we can learn to sew a whole crop of totes, pouches, and bags. Find free patterns and tutorials right here:
Boxy pouches made from a thrifted suit at See Kate Sew
Phoebe Bag from Artsy Crafty Babe
Nature Explorer Bag at Chez Beeper Bebe
Olivia Bag from Dixie Mango
Hip pouch by Daisie Janie
Madras summer tote from Noodlehead
Pleated tote by Artsy Crafty Babe
iPhone pouch from During Quiet Time
Denim tote at Between the Lines
Dorkys Ramos, New York City magazine writer extraordinaire who blogs at Dry as Toast, has posted an interview with me today in which I blabber on about blenders, running an Etsy shop, and the color orange. Read it right here.
How About Orange also received a brief mention at Women's Health Magazine this week. They linked to my post about Kimanh's recipe cards, in which I stated my love for carbs. Now I fear they're secretly judging me.
Finally, thank you to Flipboard for featuring How About Orange in the "Living" section of the Flipboard app. Look at that: sandwiched between Bob Vila and Oprah. It doesn't get much better than that. For those who aren't familiar with Flipboard, it's a free social magazine app for the iPad. Load it up with your Facebook and Twitter accounts, favorite blogs and news sites, then read them all like a magazine, turning pages as you go. I use it. I love it.
If your apartment needs some decorating, you can't draw, and you're broke, consider chopping up paint chips. (Yep, I'm still on the paint chip kick.) These are Glidden swatches from Home Depot made into a simple triangle pattern. I put it inside a mat and frame I already had, and it looks fairly respectable. Put anything inside a mat and frame and it will look respectable. Heck, you could frame a crumpled-up Kleenex and somebody will assume it's a very special piece of modern art.
To make this fancy paint chip art, cut swatches into triangles. I found it easiest to trim the swatches into strips first, then cut the angled sides using one triangle as a template. 
I laid the shapes out in an arrangement I liked, then transferred them one by one to a sheet of paper cut to the size I needed. I ran the paper through my Xyron machine first to make it sticky, but you could also coat your paper with spray adhesive or attach your pieces with rubber cement or other adhesive. 
Trim off any overhanging triangles, put it under glass, and you're done.
Founded by Riley Cran and Tyler Galpin, the Lost Type Co-Op is a pay-what-you-want foundry. Browse through the retro-inspired typefaces, and when you see one you must have, enter a donation amount from $0 to infinity. After entering an amount and downloading the font, you'll be directed to Paypal if you typed something other than zero. 100% of the funds go directly to the font designer. Enjoy!
Some interesting do-it-yourself ideas from around the internet:
Chalkboard headboard by Fly Chicks
Mini laptop desk from Fresh Home Ideas
Chevron shoebox-lid wall art at Spunky Junky
Place setting table by KC and Sara via Apartment Therapy
At Pugly Pixel I discovered the Japonizer. It sounds like an Asian pro wrestler, but it's actually a pattern generator that creates seamless files for tiling—useful for Twitter backgrounds, websites, or your computer desktop. Choose a traditional Japanese pattern, select a size and your favorite colors, and download your file. (Should you need to generate a professional wrestling name as well, click here.)
A take-off on the iconic "I love NY" logo, this "I love my food" recipe set from Scissors Paper Wok is a nifty download. Print your own cards for soup, salad, sauce, baking, roast, drink, dessert, bread, breakfast, main dish and side dish. Though if I had my way, I'd eat only bread and dessert, but I've heard you're not supposed to do that. Get the cards right here.
If you've got paint chips sitting around begging to be made into something, try folding them into boxes for paperclips, thumbtacks, party favor candies, or tiny gifts. I made these from Behr swatches, available at Home Depot.
You'll need paint swatches, double-stick tape, an X-acto knife, ruler, and cutting mat.
For the box bottom, cut a 1/2" strip off each of the two rounded ends of the swatch. You should be left with a 5" x 5" square. At a point slightly more than 1 1/2" from one edge—about 1 17/32" if you want to be picky, but I just eyeballed it—score a line with your knife. Repeat on the remaining three sides. These scoring lines are shown as dashed lines above. Then cut out the gray shaded sections. This is what the box bottom should look like:
The box lid is constructed the same way. Trim a swatch down to a 3" x 3" square. At a point slightly less than 1/2" from one edge, score a line with your knife. Repeat on the remaining three sides and cut out the gray shaded sections.
Fold each sheet on the scored lines, bending flaps inward and securing them with double-stick tape. 
HGTV features a collection of all-occasion party invitations to download and print. If you've got a party coming up and the stick people you've scrawled on your homemade invites don't look quite right, click here! Created by different designers, there's something for everyone.
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